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Poetry

Poetry

In America

Writers all over the world are today subjected to daily threats for practicing their basic human rights to freely express what they want in whichever language they choose. During her term of office...

Text: Jennifer Clement November 08 2019
Poetry

So beautiful are the tongues

Alfred Msdala is a poet, critic, and currently the chairperson of PEN Malawi. During his term as chairperson, PEN Malawi has established a translation committee with the aim of translating important...

Text: Alfred Msadala October 25 2019
Poetry

“Our essence changes, fades away”

Enriqueta Lunez, born in Chiapas in Mexico in 1981, is a poet and writer who belongs to the new generation of Tsotsil writers in the country writing in Tsotsil instead of Spanish. Her poems revolve...

Text: Enriqueta Lunez October 18 2019
Poetry

Takeout Poem

Writer and poet Cao Shuying was born in Harbin in northern China, but is currently living in Hong Kong. PEN/Opp publishes one of her poems—a poem where an unruly rebellious force is ever present:...

Text: Cao Shuying June 13 2019
Poetry

Burn After Reading

Lui Waitong’s poem “Read and Burn” is a personal text that depicts generations of suffering against the foil of Chinese history. The author takes a retrospective look at her maternal grandfather who...

Text: Liu Waitong June 13 2019
Poetry

Writing Despite Inarticulateness

“They did everything to keep us asleep,” says Tammy Ho Lai-Ming, writer and Chairperson of PEN Hong Kong, in one of her poems. Ever present in her poetry is the worry she feels for the future of Hong...

Text: Tammy Ho Lai-Ming June 13 2019
Poetry

Poems from Exile

Sosina Ashenafi, author and journalist, was born and raised in Ethiopia, and is known for her sarcastic essay style, short story writing and her poetry. She now works and lives in Canada, where she...

Text: Sosina Ashenafi May 03 2019
Poetry

Let Me Hear Your Truth

Chaala Hailu Abata, an Ethiopian poet who was imprisoned and tortured in his country of origin for writing poetry critical of the regime, lives in safety in Sweden today. But his thoughts remain back...

Text: Chaala Hailu Abata May 03 2019
Poetry

Salt and Metal

The metallic taste of clotted blood, like the salt from a cold sweat, seems ubiquitous. Ineradicable. Liyou Libsekal was born in 1990 in Ethiopia and currently lives in Addis Ababa. She is an award...

Text: Liyou Libsekal May 03 2019
Fiction

(the business of living)

Carlos Egaña is one of Venezuela’s most prominent poets. Like many other poets of his generation he mainly publishes his poetry online. Internet has become a second home since traditional media are...

Text: Carlos Egaña January 22 2019
Poetry

Gazing at an empty mirror

Sahar Mousa is a Palestinian poet and writer. She published on Facebook during the wars in Gaza in 2008 and 2012, a series of articles that received attention. The articles led to death threats from...

Text: Sahar Mousa November 29 2018
Fiction

The Walls of Stockholm

"My name is carved into all the trees / and scribbled on all the buses / despite how I cannot write a single word… "

Text: Wafai laila September 11 2018
Poetry

Dancing like girls

"Don’t dance like a girl / I will dance / Don’t move like a girl / I will move"

TEXT: Khaled Alesmael September 11 2018
Poetry

Immortality

Yasaman R. Choube was born in Iran and now lives in exile. For PEN/Opp she has written a moving story about love, oppression and loss.

Text: Yasaman R. Choube December 18 2017

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